How to Make Curve Text Using Cricut Design Space? A quick and easy tutorial to make beautifully-arched texts

Posted by Denn on 7th Mar 2023

The curved font is indeed thriving! From billboard ads and print/online campaigns to craft vinyl projects, this curvy twist has genuinely become a design trend worthy of the spotlight.

And why not? Curve fonts deserve all the buzz and love, especially from crafty folks like you and me! The way it lets us step up our visuals and incorporate any text into curved or round graphics is a creative skill we want to consider.

Thanks to the many free curve text generator scattered through the internet, incorporating curved font in your design have now been made easy and accessible. You won't need to spend long hours on Youtube university or find a personal teacher to learn the secrets of making this font.

But, and yes, there's a big BUT! Before settling with these free sources, you need to know that most free curve text generators create files that are not editable. You won't be able to edit how curvy or control how bent you want it to be. And we all know the joy of using curved font lies in its flexibility to be incorporated into any round/arch design.

So, why endure the hassle of doing it elsewhere when your own Cricut Design Space can give you the perfect curve text? That's right! There is no need to look elsewhere because you only need to sit right before you.

Just think of all the beautiful visuals you can pull off using Cricut Design Space in creating curved fonts. So gear up, my creative soldier. Today, we are on a mission to learn and become master makers of curved texts. I know you've been waiting and wanting this for a long time, so let's do this here and now!

Can you curve font in Cricut Design Space?

Cricut Design Space is one powerful app! It's one of the best design software any crafter can get its hand on, not to mention that it's certified beginner-friendly, too.

So, to answer the question if CDS is equipped to create curve fonts, the answer is YES! Curve fonts are easy-peasy for Cricut Design Space. It has a dedicated Curve Tool, so you can easily bend and twist any text into a circular form.

Say goodbye to the old way of manually aligning each letter's angle since Cricut Design Space lets you do this easily. This easy-to-learn and use feature is the top choice in adding uniquely-arched texts.

So, let's twist and turn our way to the perfect curve font with this step-by-step tutorial.

How do I make text look curved?

Aside from using fun and standout fonts, CURVE-ifying text is another solid way to ensure an aesthetically pleasing visual design. Thanks to Cricut Design Space, making text look curved has become a stress-free adventure.

Android users, don't be sad! I'm sure Cricut will also make Curve Tool available on Android OS in the coming days. In the meantime, here's how you make beautifully-arched font using the Desktop app. In this tutorial, I will show you how to use Design Space for both Desktop and iOS.

Procedure:

1. Insert a Text

After opening the Cricut Design Space, access the Design Panel to the left side of your screen. In the middle, you'll see the Text Tool. Click it then a Text Box will pop up in your canvas.

2. Choose your font

Edit the text box with your own words. Select a font style and size. You can adjust the spacing thru the Letter Space Tool if you want.

Just a quick tip for finding a font! Design Space offers an enormous collection of fonts in its library. And not a single one of the preinstalled Cricut fonts suits your taste. In that case, you can also look into the System Fonts or purchase premium Cricut font individually.

To do this, select or click on the text to activate the Text Toolbar. Head to the upper right corner of your screen to access the font dropdown menu. Once you click the dropdown arrow, a font window will pop up. From there, you can scroll down or search all the free font styles and those that can be purchased. You can also toggle between sources by clicking All, System, or Cricut in the upper portion. This added feature makes searching easy and organized.

If your design has several lines of text to curve, use separate text boxes for each line or the Ungroup to Lines option to break your multiple text lines into different text boxes.

3. Curve the Text

After making all the needed adjustments, like the font style, size, spacing, and line separation, we have now come to the real deal — curving the text!

First, highlight your editing text to activate the needed editing tools. Once the text has been highlighted, the CURVE tool will appear above.

Click it and wait for a couple of seconds. Take your time with a few seconds of loading as lagging since it takes a few moments for Cricut Design Space to analyze the text before displaying the slider.

Once the slider display appears, drag this slider to change the curvature of the text. Dragging the slider to the left will curve the text upward while pulling it to the right will bend it downward. Note that the number or the Diameter will change as you move the slider from left to right or vice versa. When the text is curved upward, the number in the diameter field becomes negative, or a "-" symbol is added before the number.

To match the curvature of multiple lines of text, manually encode the same number in the Diameter field. Add "-" before the number to curve the text upward.

Remember that a minor diameter counts on font size, text length, and spacing. Curving text with small font sizes and only a few letters can achieve a smaller circumference than text with larger fonts and longer words or phrases.

4. Adjust the text as needed.

If you think getting that beautifully-curved text is all there is, well, here are some additional useful Cricut Design Space tools you need to know to get that perfect curve design!

Sometimes, even a tiny space can significantly impact the overall aesthetic appeal of your graphic. For this problem, you refer to the Letter Spacing property of CDS. Click on the arrows either down or up— depending on if you want the text to get closer together or move apart.

If you're wrapping the curved text in a logo or other circular shapes, the Rotate Icon is the go-to solution. Just click on the text you wish to rotate. You'll notice different small icons will appear on its four corners. Click and drag the Rotate Icon on the upper right corner to spin the text to your liking.

Now, it's time for iOS users to learn the trick. This is how you curve a text using the Cricut Design Space Desktop version. There's not a big difference here vs. the Desktop App. The steps are similar, except that in the iOS version, the tools are placed below.

1. Add text by clicking on the Text Tool at the bottom of the Canvas.

2. Edit the text in the text box, then change its font, size, and spacing. You also need to use separate text boxes for multiple lines of text. If you want to use the Ungroup to Lines function, go to Actions, then click the Advanced menu. Lastly, select the Ungroup to Lines option to turn one long line of text into separate lines with their text boxes.

3. Next is curving the text. To access the Curve tool, select the Edit menu, and the Curve tool will appear along with other text-editing options. Wait for a few moments, as Design Space will need a few seconds to analyze the text's size and spacing. Once done, the slider and diameter number field will pop up.

Make sure to click on the text, as the slider won't activate if no text is selected, drag and move the slider to the right if you want to bend it downward, then to the left for an upward curve.

If you plan to curve more than one line of text and want them to have the same curvature, manually enter the desired diameter in the number field. Do note that a dash "-" needs to be added before the number for an upward curve.

There you have it! See? Making a curve text is as easy as a few clicks, all thanks to Cricut Design Space! But of course, there will come an instance where a text you're editing won't curve. Don't fret! It's an easy-to-fix dilemma. So, here's how to troubleshoot this problem.

Why can't I curve text in Cricut Design Space?

It's unavoidable to forget some steps from time to time. That's okay! We've all been there. But a little reminder is a good cure for a forgetful mind, right?

So, if you encounter a problem in curving a text in the future, one of these reasons could cause trouble.

One of the most common reasons you can't curve a text is that you forgot about separating lines of text.

Remember that you won't be able to use the Curve tool if the text box has multiple lines of text in it. And if you can't access the curve tool, you can't create a curve text. So, to avoid this dilemma, separate lines of text in different text boxes. It's the only way to access the curve tool.

Second, you are curving text that has been ungrouped into individual letters. This issue usually happens after making some spacing adjustments. So if you need to make additional adjustments, do it after curving the text.

Lastly, another possible reason you can't curve text is that you're editing using an android device. Unfortunately, the Curve Tool is only available in the Desktop version and iOS. So, even if you can open a project with curved text on your android device, you still won't be able to edit it.

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